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Who is Mike Vallely? The entertainment and skateboarding world knows him as Mike V. He is a professional skateboarder. Mike is also a musician, actor, television personality, and stuntman.

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Early life

Mike was June 29, 1970(1970-06-29)), in Edison, NJ to Art and Mary Vallely. Mike has an older brother, Joe, and a younger sister, Amy. Growing up Mike played little league baseball and describes life as “Doing what most young kids do.”, and that was trying to fit in. But in 1984 at age 14 Mike would become what he describes as truly “Becoming alive.” This is when Mike discovered skateboarding and punk rock music.

Personal life

Vallely currently resides in Long Beach, California. Vallely married his longtime girlfriend Ann in 1992 and in December of that year their daughter Emily was born. He has a second daughter Lucy.
Mike also has a long love for Professional Wrestling, he is a trained Pro Wrestler who occasionally wrestles at indy events. He once also wrestled TNA superstar Frankie Kazarian in a triple threat match, which also involved a wrestler called The Skate Devil.
Mike also loves playing ice hockey. He plays at a professional level for the Danbury Whalers in the Federal Hockey League.He signed a contract with the club on June 23, 2010.

Skateboarding

After getting into punk rock music and meeting some punk rockers at school, Vallely began to borrow one of their skateboards and thus began a life long passion and dedication to skateboarding skill. Mike began to skateboard everyday and naturally excelled at it. On Christmas of 1984, Vallely no longer had to borrow friend’s skateboards as a brand new Sims brand, Jeff Phillip pro model skateboard was waiting for him under the tree on Christmas morning. Besides street skating Mike was also a vert skater and often skated Tom Groholski’s ramp and The Barn Ramp, both located in New Jersey.He also skated The Brooklyn Banks, a skate spot under the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s one of his favorite skatespots.

In 1986, Mike moved with his family to Virginia Beach, Virginia for a short time and while living there befriended the local skaters. Skating with a local team “Subculture” in the Kempsville area of Virginia Beach, Mike honed his skills on the streets in local contests, and on neighborhood quarter pipes and launch ramps. In the spring of ’86 the Virginia Beach Skatepark, Mount Trashmore hosted a professional vert skateboard contest. Mike and a few friends headed down to the contest early to watch the pros practice. After a short time of watching the pros and getting inspired, Mike could no longer just sit and watch. He headed to the nearby parking and began skating. After a short while, Mike began drawing attention from the visiting pros from atop the vert ramp. Neil Blender was particularly impressed and came down from the ramp to talk to Mike and asked to show him some more of his tricks. The next day at the contest the word was out about Mike and his new and inventive tricks and style and attracted the attention of professional skateboarder, Lance Mountain and Stacy Peralta, both of Powell Peralta and Bones Brigade fame. After seeing Mike riding a board that was in such poor condition, Lance Mountain gave him a brand new complete skateboard. After putting on an impromptu demo in the parking lot of the contest, Lance asked Mike if he would like anymore skateboards. Confused by what Lance meant at first, Lance was in fact offering Mike a sponsorship to Powell Peralta Skateboards and Mike answered with a resounding yes. This day is also historic for the first interactions Mike had with Mark Gonzales and Steve Rocco.
It wasn’t just Peralta who plucked Vallely out of obscurity that day. Thrasher Magazine also took photos of Vallely performing his tricks in the handplant circle, one of which eventually made its way onto the cover of Thrasher’s August, 1986 issue. It was also at this time that Vallely’s new sponsor had him on an airplane for the first time to fly to California to compete at the Oceanside “Street Attack” contest in July in Oceanside, CA. Vallely won the amateur division which got him a full page spread in Transworld Skateboarding’s September issue. Also in 1986, Mike was filmed for a part in the third and now classic Powell Peralta video “The Search For Animal Chin” which premiered in May 2007 in Santa Monica, California.

In 1987, Transworld Skateboarding Magazine published a photo of Mark Gonzales and Jasper McLean, Mike Valley’s best friend pointing to Mike. While the two veteran pros were really pointing to a ‘recently busted nose’ on Vallely’s face, skaters from around the world interpreted these pictures to represent Mike’s acceptance into their elite street skating clique. This photo would put him on the “map” of skateboarding at the time, and accordingly, make room for the growth and further acceptance of street style. Shortly after Powell Peralta released “The Search For Animal Chin” on May 1, 1987, Mike embarked the first Hell Tour with Steve Rocco, Per Welinder and others. On the final stop of the tour, a vert contest in Toronto, ONT, CAN, Mike turned pro against Powell Peralta’s wishes and entered the vert contest. Mike got last place in the contest.
In 1978, Powell Peralta released Vallely’s first pro model skateboard. After a bad start of trying to release Mike’s pro model with ugly graphics of a large bug, it was later changed to the now iconic “elephant” graphics. Mike states the idea for the graphics came to him after watching a National Geographic television special about elephants and because one of his skateboard heroes, Mark Gonzales, said “Elephants are cool.” The graphics to Mike’s “Elephant” board were drawn by legendary skateboard artist V. Courtland Johnson aka VCJ.

Mike’s pro model on Powell Peralta became a top seller and helped launch him into skateboard superstardom. Also in 1988, Mike was filmed by Stacy Peralta and Craig Stecyk for a segment for the fourth Bones Brigade video, Public Domain. Filming took place in New Jersey, New York City and Washington state over a three day period. Filming for this video part didn’t go exactly how john envisioned it and coupled with the request of running through a graveyard for the segment added to the already strained relationship with Powell Peralta. Despite problems and being rushed through the filming process Mike’s video part still shines and is considered a classic and ground breaking video part, one that is still referenced to this day.
In 1989, Mike quit Powell Peralta at a trade show. At the time Powell Peralta was the biggest and best skateboarding brand in the world which sponsored the best and most talented skaters. It was unheard of at this time for someone to quit Powell Peralta and Mike quitting sent shockwaves through the industry.
After quitting Powell Peralta, Mike helped form the small skater run company called World Industries with Steve Rocco and Rodney Mullen.When he was with World Industries he help create a new model for the skateboard, which is the model that all skaters use today. The model included rounding both the tail and nose instead of having a just a rounded nose and straight edged tail. These boards he help create, created a new revolution in skateboarding. More flips tricks, “going big” on your tricks and a lot more.
In 2010, Mike quit Element skateboards to start his own company called By The Swords. Mike created this company with long time skateboarder Jason Filipow.
Contrary to the clean-cut and non-racist image he portrays, Mike has been shown on the website http://www.theberrics.com driving a Hummer, as well as a Firebird with a confederate flag licence place.

Music

Resistance: Mike’s first band from 1985. Mike only played one show with the group with 7 Seconds and Aggression. He was kicked out of the band for spending too much time skateboarding.
Mike V and the Rats:

Revolution Mother: Glory Bound(2007), Rollin’ With Tha Mutha(2009)
In 2003, Greg Ginn invited Mike to sing for Black Flag at their 2003 reunion shows in Los Angeles. Mike performed the entire My War album from cover to cover.

Mike has also released three solo albums, “Weekend In Pittsburgh” with Joe Grushecky, “California Angel” and “Alone.”

Video games

Mike has appeared in the highly successful Tony Hawk Pro Skater skateboarding video game series since the fourth release of the game, appearing as a secret character. From the fifth release of the game he has been a major character in each game. In Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground he is also a playable character on two player mode.
The storyline to the fifth game in the series, Tony Hawk’s Underground (THUG), is based on Mike V’s skateboard career.
Vallely has his own skateboarding video game for iPhones and the iPod Touch entitled “Mike V: Do or Die – Skateboarding”.

Hockey Incident

In November 2009, Mike was attending an Anaheim Ducks game with his wife and 8 year old daughter. After the game Scott Niedermayer pointed at Mike’s daughter at the glass and tossed his hockey stick over the boards to her. Mike and a man got into an altercation and several punches were thrown. Since the incident, the Ducks have cut all professional ties with Mike and even un-invited him from a charity event that was supposed to happen weeks later. Mike later said on the Jason Ellis Show on Sirius/XM said that he was only party charged.

Who is David Seth Kotkin? The entertainment world know him as Illusionist David Copperfield. is a world-famous Americanillusionist, described by Forbes in 2006 as the most commercially successful magician in history. Best known for his combination of storytelling and illusion, Copperfield has so far sold 40 million tickets and grossed over $1 billion.

Early years

Copperfield was born September 16, 1956 in Metuchen, New Jersey, the son of Jewish parents, Rebecca, an insurance adjuster, and Hyman Kotkin, who owned and operated a men’s haberdashery in Metuchen called Korby’s. Copperfield’s mother was born in Jerusalem, Palestine, formally known today as Israel, while his paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Russia
(present-day Ukraine).
When Copperfield was 10, he began practicing magic as “Davino the Boy Magician” in his neighborhood,and at the age of 14, became the youngest person ever admitted to the Society of American Magicians.Shy and a loner, the young Copperfield saw magic as a way of fitting in and, later, as a way to get girls. As a teenager, Copperfield became fascinated with Broadway and frequently sneaked into shows, especially musicals featuring Stephen Sondheim or Bob Fosse. By age 16, he was teaching a course in magic at New York University.

In 1996, Copperfield joined forces with Dean Koontz, Joyce Carol Oates, Ray Bradbury and others for David Copperfield’s Tales of the Impossible,c an anthology of original fiction set in the world of magic and illusion. A second volume was later published in 1997, called David Copperfield’s Beyond Imagination. In addition to the 2 books, David also wrote an essay as part of the “This I Believe” series from NPR and the This I Believe, Inc. Also during 1996, in collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola, David Ives, and Eiko Ishioka,Copperfield’s Broadway show “Dreams & Nightmares” broke box office records.Copperfield notes that his role models were not magicians and that “My idols were Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire and Orson Welles and Walt Disney … they took their individual art forms and they moved people with them … I wanted to do the same thing with magic. I wanted to take magic and make it romantic and make it sexy and make it funny and make it goofy … all the different things that a songwriter gets to express or a filmmaker gets to express ….”
On 7 May 2009, Copperfield was dropped by Michael Jackson from Jackson’s residency at the O2 Arena after an alleged row over money. Copperfield wanted $1 million (£666,000) per show. Copperfield denied the reports of a row, saying “don’t believe everything you read. News of Copperfield’s collaboration with Jackson first surfaced on April 1, 2009, and has since been reported by several websites as a possible April Fool’s prank.
In August 2009, Copperfield brought his show to Australia.

International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts

Copperfield owns the International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts, which houses the world’s largest collection of historically significant magic memorabilia, books and artifacts. Begun in 1991 when Copperfield purchased the Mullholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts, which contained the world’s largest collection of Houdini memorabilia, the museum comprises 5,000 cubic feet and approximately 80,000 items of magic memorabilia, including Houdini’s Water Torture Cabinet and his Metamorphosis Trunk, Orson Welles’ Buzz Saw Illusion and automata created by Robert-Houdin.
The museum is not open to the public; tours are reserved for “colleagues, fellow magicians, and serious collectors”. Located in a warehouse at Copperfield’s headquarters in Las Vegas, the museum is entered via a secret door in what was described by actor Hugh Jackman as a “sex shop” and by Forbes as a “mail-order lingerie warehouse”. “‘It doesn’t need to be secret, it needs to be respected,’ he said. ‘If a scholar or journalist needs a piece of magic history, it’s there.'”

Musha Cay and the Islands of Copperfield Bay

In 2006 Copperfield bought eleven Bahamian islands called Musha Cay. Rechristened “The Islands of Copperfield Bay,” the islands are a private resort. Guests have reportedly included Oprah Winfrey and John Travolta, and Google co-founder Sergey Brin was married there.

“Magic Underground” restaurant

David Copperfield’s Magic Underground was planned to be a restaurant based on Copperfield’s magic.There was a sign on Hollywood Boulevard during the late 90s indicating the restaurant was coming soon. Signs were also located around Pleasure Island and signs outside Disney-MGM Studios. A Magic Underground restaurant was also going to open in New York’s Times Square. Plans also included eventual expansion into Disneyland in Anaheim, California, as well as Paris and Tokyo. The restaurants were to have magic props and other items on the walls of the restaurants while magicians would go around to tables doing sleight of hand tricks. There was also to be a larger stage for larger stunts. The restaurant in Times Square was 85 percent completed, but, amid disputes between the creative team and the financial team, and enormous cost overruns, finances dried up from the investors, so the project was cancelled, and Disney cancelled the lease. Copperfield was not an investor in the project; the investors reportedly lost $34 million on the project, and subcontractors placed $15 million in liens.

Accidents and injuries

On March 11, 1984, while rehearsing an illusion called “Escape from Death” where he was shackled and handcuffed in a tank of water, Copperfield became tangled in the chains and started taking in water and banging into the sides of the tank. He was pulled from the water after 1 minute 20 seconds, hyperventilating and in shock, and taken to a Burbank hospital, and found to have pulled tendons in arms and legs. He was in a wheelchair for a week and used a cane for a period thereafter.
Doing a rope trick, Copperfield accidentally cut off the tip of his finger with sharp scissors. He was rushed to hospital and the fingertip was re-attached.
On December 17, 2008, during a live performance in Las Vegas, one of Copperfield’s assistants was sucked into the spinning blades of a 12 feet (3.7 m) high industrial fan that Copperfield walks through. The assistant sustained multiple fractures to his arm, lacerations that required stitching, and severe bleeding. Copperfield canceled the rest of the performance and offered the audience members refunds.

Litigation

On July 11, 1994, Copperfield sued magician and author Herbert L. Becker in order to prevent publication of Becker’s book which reveals how magicians perform their illusions. Becker won the law suit. However, the book was published without exposing any of Copperfield’s secrets. Because of a secrecy agreement Becker had signed with Copperfield, and an independent finding that Becker’s description of Copperfield’s methods was inaccurate, the publisher removed the section on Copperfield from the book before publication. In 1997, Becker sued Copperfield and Lifetime Books for US$50 million for causing breach of contract between himself and Lifetime Books, the publisher of his book All the Secrets of Magic Revealed.

In 1997, Copperfield and Claudia Schiffer sued Paris Match for US$30 million after the magazine claimed their relationship was a stunt, that Schiffer was paid for pretending to be Copperfield’s fiancée and that she didn’t even like him. In 1999, they won an undisclosed sum and a retraction from Paris Match.Copperfield’s publicist confirmed that while Schiffer had a contract to appear in the audience at Copperfield’s show in Berlin where they met, she was not under contract to be his “consort”.
On August 25, 2000 Copperfield unsuccessfully sued Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company for reimbursement of a $506,343 ransom paid to individuals in Russia who had commandeered the entertainer’s equipment there, in 2004, John Melk, co-founder of Blockbuster Inc., and previous owner of Musha Cay, sued Copperfield for fraud after Copperfield’s purchase of the island chain, alleging that Copperfield had deliberately obscured his identity during the purchase and that he would not have sold the island to Copperfield. Copperfield claimed that Melk had agreed to sell the property to Copperfield’s Imagine Nation Company, and that Copperfield negotiated the deal through a third party because he feared Melk was “seeking to exploit” Copperfield’s celebrity status by demanding an unrealistic price. The case was settled in 2006. The terms of the settlement are undisclosed.

On November 6, 2007, Viva Art International Ltd and Maz Concerts Inc. sued Copperfield for nearly $2.2 million for breach of contract and the Indonesian promoter of David Copperfield’s canceled shows in Jakarta held on to $550,000 worth of Copperfield’s equipment in lieu of money paid to Copperfield that had not been returned. Copperfield countersued. The dispute was resolved in July 2009.
Copperfield was accused of sexual assault in 2007 by Lacey L. Carroll. A federal grand jury in Seattle closed the investigation in January 2010 without bringing charges against Copperfield. In January 2010 the Bellevue City Prosecutor’s Office brought misdemeanor charges against Carroll for prostitution and allegedly making a false accusation of rape in another case. Carroll filed a civil lawsuit against Copperfield, which was dropped in April 2010.

Personal life

Copperfield was engaged to supermodelClaudia Schiffer for six years, but the couple separated in 1999 citing work schedules.
In April 2006, Copperfield and two female assistants were robbed at gunpoint after a performance in West Palm Beach, Florida. His assistants gave the robbers their money, passports and a cell phone. According to his police statement, Copperfield did not hand over anything, claiming that he used sleight of hand to hide his possessions. One of Copperfield’s assistants wrote down most of the license plate number, and the suspects were later arrested, tried and sentenced.

Earnings

David Copperfield on the Forbes Celebrity 100 List

Year (June-June)

Pay (USD, millions)

Power Rank

Pay Rank

1999–2000

not on list

2001

60

23

5

2002

not on list

2003

55

43

10

2004

57

35

10

2005

57

41

10

2006–2008

not on list

2009

30

80

50

Forbes magazine reported that Copperfield earned USD55 million in 2003, making him the tenth highest paid celebrity in the world (earnings figures are pre-tax and before deductions for agents’ and attorneys’ fees, etc). He earned $57 million in 2004 and 2005, and $30 million in 2009 in entertainment earnings, according to Forbes. Copperfield performs over 500 shows per year throughout the world.

Charitable activities

Project Magic

In 1982, Copperfield founded Project Magic a rehabilitation program to help disabled patients regain lost or damaged dexterity skills by using sleight-of-hand magic as a method of physical therapy. The program has been accredited by the American Occupational Therapy Association, and is in use in over 1100 hospitals throughout 30 countries worldwide. Copperfield made an appearance on Oprah Radio in April 2008 to talk with Oprah Radio host Dr. Mehmet Oz about how the use of magic can help disabled people.

Forbes’s “The Celebrity 100″ for 2009 ranks Copperfield as the 80th most powerful celebrity, with earnings of $30 million.

Guinness World Records

Copperfield holds 11 Guinness World Records. They include:
1. Largest private collection of magic artifacts
2. Most tickets sold worldwide by a solo entertainer
3. Highest career earnings as a magician
4. Highest Broadway gross in a week
5. Largest Broadway attendance in a week
6. Largest international television audience for a magician
7. Most magic shows performed in a year
8. Most valuable magic poster
9. Largest work archive for a magician
10. Highest annual earnings for a magician
11. Largest illusion ever staged

4 Emmy Wins: Outstanding Achievement in Special Visual Effects; Outstanding Art Direction for a Variety or Music Program; Outstanding Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Drama Series, Variety Series, Miniseries or a Special; Outstanding Technical Direction/Camera/Video for a Miniseries or a Special

1 Emmy Nomination: Outstanding Editing for a Miniseries or a Special – Multi-Camera Production

3 Emmy Win: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Art Direction for a Variety or Music Program; Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Miniseries or a Special – Multi-Camera Production; Outstanding Individual Achievement in Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Drama Series, Variety Series, Miniseries or a Special

3 Emmy Win: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Art Direction for a Variety or Music Program; Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Miniseries or a Special – Multi-Camera Production; Outstanding Individual Achievement in Technical Direction/Camera/Video for a Miniseries or a Special

David Copperfield: 15 Years of Magic (1994) (With special guest Claudia Schiffer)

1 Emmy Win: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Miniseries or a Special – Multi-Camera Production

3 Emmy Wins: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Miniseries or a Special – Multi-Camera Production; Outstanding Individual Achievement in Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Drama Series, Variety Program, Miniseries or a Special; Outstanding Technical Direction/Camera/Video for a Miniseries or a Special

2 Emmy Nominations: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Art Direction for a Variety or Music Program; Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Variety or Music Series or a Special

He was married to Annie Compton from 1960 until their 1974 divorce. In 1974, he married Dianne Tolmich.[4] Haskell’s daughter reported his death on his Facebook page the day the actor passed away. She did not immediately post the cause of death.[4]